UT's Moldenhauer relishes postseason

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AUSTIN — When it comes to his swing, Russell Moldenhauer is a man in an eternal identity crisis. He's patterned his approach based on a book by Ted Williams. He's copied the strokes of Chipper Jones and Albert Pujols. He's emulated stances he's seen in countless hours of watching hitters from around the world on the Internet.

But to his Texas teammates, only one of Moldenhauer's split-hitting personalities matters.

Regardless of the details of his swing du jour, the one thing that's been consistent about Moldenhauer is his production in UT's biggest games. Heading into this weekend's super regional against TCU — a best-of-3 series that starts today at UFCU Disch-Falk Field — the senior designated hitter from Boerne wouldn't surprise anyone if he came up with another big hit.

“I've always thrived in pressure situations,” Moldenhauer said. “It's just the high of it.”

Seldom was it higher than last year at the College World Series, when Moldenhauer — who hadn't hit a home run all season — homered four times in six games in Omaha.

Last weekend in the first three games of the NCAA tournament, Moldenhauer had two home runs, two doubles and seven RBIs.

“He's always played his best baseball when it's about the Longhorns winning championships,” UT coach Augie Garrido said.

This weekend — in a rematch of last year's Austin Super Regional which saw UT outlast TCU in three games — the Longhorns will need all the offense they can get against the Horned Frogs.

TCU (49-11) is one of the few teams in the country that can match UT (49-11) in the pitching department. The Longhorns and Horned Frogs rank first and seventh, respectively, in pitching. And TCU's rotation of Matt Purke (the national freshman pitcher of the year), Kyle Winkler and Steven Maxwell is arguably as daunting as UT's trio of Cole Green, Taylor Jungmann and Brandon Workman.